Last Dec. 20, Laura Finseth Scott died in a car crash on the way home from her family Christmas. She left behind her husband, Hunter, a career as a labor and delivery nurse at the Mayo Health Center in La Crosse and a life known for helping others.
To honor her legacy, Laura’s friend and former Madisonian Simon Balto wrote a song reflecting on her life. The singer-songwriter is donating the proceeds of download sales to a scholarship fund set up by Hunter, which will provide young people with the opportunity to pursue labor and delivery nursing.
The track, “Revelation Road (Laura’s Song),” is a lush and delicate listen as Balto carefully traverses all four seasons, meditating on life’s cyclical nature.
“I wanted it to feel really intimate,” says Balto, who avoided making a song directly about loss, instead creating a warm tribute that “people can connect with.”
Balto met Laura 10 years ago after he graduated from UW-Madison and moved back to his hometown of La Crosse, where Laura and Hunter were students at Viterbo University. Balto describes the couple as an “inseparable unit,” calling Laura “one of the really good ones.”
“Revelation Road (Laura’s Song)” is the third time Balto has honored Laura through music. He played the couple’s first wedding dance and performed a song at her funeral, which he called “the most overwhelming thing [he’s] ever done from a musical standpoint.”
Balto says creating the song and contributing to Laura’s legacy is “profoundly sad.” But he also says it’s a “a pretty cool full-circle moment.”
“Revelation Road (Laura’s Song)” features Shane Leonard (Field Report), Ben Lester (The Tallest Man on Earth, S. Carey), Steve Hobert (a Minneapolis-based jazz pianist), and Kevin Rowe (Buffalo Gospel, Fat Maw Rooney). All download proceeds will go to the Laura Finseth Scott Scholarship Fund.
